Senate Republicans blocked a vote on a border bill Tuesday that key GOP leaders helped negotiate, prompting Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Democrats to move forward on standalone Ukraine and Israel aid.

Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and James Lankford (R-OK) tried to get a bill that would meet House requirements of including border security and aid, but the majority of Republicans in both houses of Congress were not happy with the end result. Democrats will now try to get standalone Ukraine and Israel aid, but that may not get through the House since GOP leadership there demanded border security first.

McConnell seemed to blame the House for the failure. In a press conference on Wednesday, he said, "It looks to me and to most of our members that we have no real chance here to make a law" after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that the bill would be "dead on arrival" in the House.

Schumer, on the other hand, blamed opposition by former President Donald Trump to the deal for its failure and suggested that Trump opposed it so he could continue to campaign on illegal immigration leading up to the 2024 election.

All Trump's fault

Media outlets like The Hill and NBC News quickly jumped on that bandwagon. It's clear the left is trying to get traction for the narrative that Trump doesn't really want to fix the problem, just complain about it.

But voters should remember that Trump did largely fix the problem during his first term. He knows exactly what to do, and has vowed to do it again on day one if elected.

The watered-down bill the Senate was putting forth would not have fixed the problem, and that's why Trump didn't support it.

It would have continued Biden's catch-and-release program, provided lawyers for unaccompanied minors at taxpayer expense, and normalized 5,000 illegal immigrants per day, which is 1.8 million a year.

Losing issue

Immigration has become a losing issue for Democrats after three-plus years of an open border and more than 10 million illegal immigrants now in the U.S. because of Biden's lax policies.

A recent Harvard-Harris poll showed immigration as the top concern of voters at 35%, even above inflation at 32%.

64% think conditions at the border are getting worse, and 68% said it should be tougher to enter the U.S. illegally.

Only 32% said the current border policies should continue.

It's unclear at this point which side voters will blame for the failure to pass any kind of border bill, but we need to remember one thing.

The Founding Fathers designed Congress to maximize gridlock and make it hard to get anything done when parties are sharply divided. The system is working the way it was designed, and what we really need is new presidential leadership to change this situation.